Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: High Prices Make Medications Unattainable; Cuban Cuts Out PBMs To Lower Costs
Colorado Sun: Drugs Don’t Work If We Can’t Afford Them
I was troubled by the false choice presented in a recent opinion column from Sabrina Walker. Patients do not need to choose between lowering drug prices and protecting pharmaceutical innovation. The drug pricing reforms that are under consideration by the U.S. Senate will maintain the innovation we need at prices we can afford. (Kris Garcia, 4/2)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Mark Cuban's Online Pharmacy Exposes The Real Sharks In The Pharmaceutical Industry
The White House and Senate Democrats are working to make sweeping reforms to our drug pricing system. Lowering the cost of prescriptions was a critical and widely supported objective of the now-dead Build Back Better bill, especially for Hispanic and Latino individuals. Disproportionately likely to be uninsured and suffer from chronic conditions that require medicine to treat, Hispanic Americans often face outsized difficulties affording their medications. Forty-two percent of Hispanics have reported not taking medications as prescribed due to the cost. Agreement on how to lower drug costs, however, is still elusive. (Dr. Yanira Cruz, 4/4)
Stat: To Spend Less On Health Care, Invest More Into Medicines
The conventional wisdom that we need to reduce spending on prescription drugs is all wrong. In an ideal health care system, we’d spend more on drugs, not less. Rather than spending trillions of dollars on hospital infrastructure, moderately effective palliative treatments, and burdensome administrative processes, the U.S. could spend a smaller sum on powerful medicines that prevent, control, and even cure disease. (Jean-Fancois Formela and John Stanford, 4/5)
Stat: Reimagining R&D Can Substantially Cut Drug Development Costs
In the course of our work advising biopharma companies, we are often asked how they can bring medicines to market more quickly and cost efficiently. It’s a timely question. It can take 10 to 15 years and cost between $2.6 billion and $6.7 billion — including the cost of capital and the cost of failure — to bring a successful medicine to market, depending on therapeutic area, treatment modality, and disease complexity. While the biopharma industry continues to innovate — look no further than its speedy response to Covid-19 — those costs and timelines are no longer sustainable. (Nicole Paraggio, Nicole van Poppel and Selen Karaca-Griffin, 4/6)
